Alfonso Robelo

WASHINGTON -- Alfonso Robelo, a Nicaraguan rebel leader based in Costa Rica, says Lt. Col. Oliver North arranged for more than $100,000 to be paid to two rebel groups at a time when U.S. aid to the Contras was supposed to be banned, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Robelo said his Nicaraguan Democratic Movement and another organization, the Nicaraguan Democratic Union, received the payments arranged by North in $10,000 monthly installments that began in the fall of 1985 and ended shortly before the scandal`s revelations in November 1986.

WASHINGTON -- Alfonso Robelo, a Nicaraguan rebel leader based in Costa Rica, says Lt. Col. Oliver North arranged for more than $100,000 to be paid to two rebel groups at a time when U.S. aid to the Contras was supposed to be banned, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Robelo said his Nicaraguan Democratic Movement and another organization, the Nicaraguan Democratic Union, received the payments arranged by North in $10,000 monthly installments that began in the fall of 1985 and ended shortly before the scandal`s revelations in November 1986.

MIAMI -- Nicaraguan rebel leader Arturo Cruz on Thursday confirmed the role of Lt. Col. Oliver North as the central figure in an elaborate operation that collected millions of dollars from private contributors for the Contras` war efforts. Cruz, who spoke as the Tower Commission was handing its findings to President Reagan, said North had explained to him that some funds coming to the Contras during the past two years were "from private donors." "As far as we knew, and North told us, there were private donors who were making the funds available to us," Cruz said.

MIAMI -- Nicaraguan rebel leader Arturo Cruz on Thursday confirmed the role of Lt. Col. Oliver North as the central figure in an elaborate operation that collected millions of dollars from private contributors for the Contras` war efforts. Cruz, who spoke as the Tower Commission was handing its findings to President Reagan, said North had explained to him that some funds coming to the Contras during the past two years were "from private donors." "As far as we knew, and North told us, there were private donors who were making the funds available to us," Cruz said.

WASHINGTON -- Arturo Cruz, the lynchpin of congressional support for Nicaragua`s Contra rebels, on Thursday again did not carry out a threat to quit the armed struggle against Nicaragua`s leftist Sandinista government. As he did during the rebels` last leadership crisis in May, Cruz withheld his resignation from the United Nicaraguan Opposition ruling council after receiving assurances that political reforms within the U.S.-backed guerrilla movement were forthcoming. In the view of numerous observers on Capitol Hill and inside the Reagan administration, the departure of Cruz, a widely hailed 65-year-old banker who once served the Sandinistas as ambassador to Washington, would have slammed the door on administration efforts to persuade an increasingly balky Congress to continue U.S. funding of Contra forces.

Nicaraguan rebel leader Alfonso Robelo said Tuesday that United States refusal to resume aid to forces battling the Sandinista government would be tantamount to a "second Bay of Pigs." "(U.S. aid) is a gesture, is a sign that the United States is not abandoning Nicaraguan democrats," Robelo said in an interview with the editorial board of the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel. "We are not asking for U.S. intervention. We are Nicaraguans trying to liberate our own country." Robelo, a former Sandinista official who has joined a U.S.-backed rebel alliance, is visiting American newspapers to try to generate editorial support for President Reagan`s proposal to give the 12,000 so-called "contras" an additional $14 million.

Leaders of major rebel and political groups opposed to Nicaragua`s government Saturday issued an ultimatum to the Sandinistas to relinquish their "totalitarian" hold on the country by April 20. The document called on the government of President Daniel Ortega to negotiate directly with representatives of the more than 14,000 rebels fighting to overthrow him -- a U.S.-backed proposition that the Sandinistas have refused. By signing the document the Sandinista opponents hoped to bolster President Reagan`s campaign to secure congressional funding of $14 million for the rebels.

WASHINGTON -- Arturo Cruz, a top Contra official, said Friday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation questioned him twice in recent months about the role Lt. Col. Oliver North played in arranging a $7,000 monthly allowance for Cruz for most of last year. Cruz said North, a former White House aide, offered to arrange for the payments in a meeting in December 1985, and that Cruz began receiving the money in January 1986. He added, however, that the money suddenly stopped coming last November when North was forced to resign from the National Security Council after White House aides said he had diverted profits to the Contras from the sale of American arms to Iran.

MIAMI -- Contra leaders on Tuesday blasted Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega`s agreement to hold direct cease-fire talks as a ploy to block U.S. aid to the rebels, but they also said they are willing to negotiate with the Sandinistas. "Our conviction is that the Sandinistas are acting on bad faith. However, we are willing to meet with the cease-fire commission," said Alfonso Robelo, one of the 6-member directorate of the Nicaraguan Resistance. "Our conviction may be wrong." At a news conference at Contra headquarters in Miami, the directors outlined their conditions for cease-fire talks.

Nicaraguan rebel leader Arturo Cruz appears to be a man torn by conscience, political beliefs and his unlikely role as the apparent make-it-or-break-it member of the three-man coalition leading the fight against the Managua regime. In a News/Sun-Sentinel interview Saturday, in which he disputed reports attributed to U.S. officials suggesting he had changed his mind about resigning and would stay inside the United Nicaraguan Opposition, his voice broke from emotion and his words betrayed a deep sense of inner conflict.

WASHINGTON -- Arturo Cruz, the lynchpin of congressional support for Nicaragua`s Contra rebels, on Thursday again did not carry out a threat to quit the armed struggle against Nicaragua`s leftist Sandinista government. As he did during the rebels` last leadership crisis in May, Cruz withheld his resignation from the United Nicaraguan Opposition ruling council after receiving assurances that political reforms within the U.S.-backed guerrilla movement were forthcoming. In the view of numerous observers on Capitol Hill and inside the Reagan administration, the departure of Cruz, a widely hailed 65-year-old banker who once served the Sandinistas as ambassador to Washington, would have slammed the door on administration efforts to persuade an increasingly balky Congress to continue U.S. funding of Contra forces.

Nicaraguan rebel leader Alfonso Robelo said Tuesday that United States refusal to resume aid to forces battling the Sandinista government would be tantamount to a "second Bay of Pigs." "(U.S. aid) is a gesture, is a sign that the United States is not abandoning Nicaraguan democrats," Robelo said in an interview with the editorial board of the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel. "We are not asking for U.S. intervention. We are Nicaraguans trying to liberate our own country." Robelo, a former Sandinista official who has joined a U.S.-backed rebel alliance, is visiting American newspapers to try to generate editorial support for President Reagan`s proposal to give the 12,000 so-called "contras" an additional $14 million.